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I watched Babylon 5 for the first time including all the later movie/miniseries content last year. When it first aired it failed to hold my interest but so many friends have told me to watch it, I finally did. I cut it major slack for effects given the time it was done and it was nostalgic seeing the Amiga/Video Toaster rendered SFX. Speaking of nostalgia, anyone else think Sinclair sounds like Robert Stack (12 O'clock High, The Untouchables, Airplane!)?

But the biggest problem with B5 was not the story but the lack of polish in nearly every script. So much of the dialog seems forced and awkward. And the even the stories fell apart after the war with the shadow aliens. Even if this show was one person's vision, some of the writing should have been delegated to a trusted team so that one person didn't have to take on such an enormous writing challenge.

With all its problems though, B5 still has one of the best time travel stories ever. A 3 year setup! And they were lucky to be able to get the original commander back long enough to complete his story arc.

And with all the shows faults, I see it's influence. DS9 finally became worth watching in the final years when they began emulating B5's long story arcs against a seemingly unbeatable enemy. The Citadel of the Mass Effect video game series (and some of the story elements) feel like an homage to B5.

B5, to me, will always be a show that failed to realize it's own potential.

I would estimate that half of Shatner's vote is for his toupee which rightfully deserves a slot of it's own. That thing clung to his head tighter than a "insert favorite 3rd world country here" pole dancer.

There are two lines from other shows that sum up Kirk's leadership.

From Coupling s1e5, encouraging his friend to get the girl: "Captain Kirk, it's time to shag the alien's girlfriend!"

From Lost, after Locke has to have the term "red shirt" explained: "Sounds like a piss-poor captain to me."

If asked where my current favorite beer came from, that would be a single source.

But I drink a variety of beers and I suspect most beer drinkers are similar when choice is available. This poll seems to be about people expressing the range from "doesn't care as long as it's cold and wet" to the elitist "only ___ shall touch these lips."

I saw the poll was designed to provoke the beer fanboys on X > Y!

Which just makes me want to respond the way Dennis Hopper did in Blue Velvet."Heineken?" (or insert another's preference here) "Fuck that shit. Pabst Blue Ribbon!"

There are 2 reasons for that notice (plus the real reason). 1. Just as with DVD players, some manufacturers didn't quite follow the spec carefully enough. Quite a few people discovered this when the first DVD release of The Matrix did not play on many players Some were unable to patch their players or didn't know and a new version was made to accommodate them.2. Sometimes there are screw-ups on the discs themselves. Google blu-ray and defective for a list. Most blu-ray players can download patches from the Internet that would solve the problems.

But those problems, while annoying are rare. The real reason is they want you to keep your blu-ray player online in order spam the crap out of you with current ads no matter how old a disc you play.... and of course track you each time your player phones home.

I think you're confused about the term "Frontera" probably because you've seen on some license plates on some cars that are from south of the border. Frontera (similar to "frontier") doesn't mean "state" it means border and "Frontera" or "Front" plates are issued to privately owned vehicles that are registered to people whose address is close to the border.

I believe everyone that wrote in, "Google" is either lying or running IE. It takes too long in Mozilla Firefox to get past the current NoScript update to make it better that the Calculator button on most keyboards.

The real missing option is a zap collar. All kids should be installed with them. It's not inhumane, only the stupid kids would't have hacked them. Then think of the satisfaction you could have after elections, in traffic, etc.

I understand the romantic notion of the perenially broke artist working for nothing out of pure passion for his craft but this hardly applies here. Google's dev price is hardly prohibitive unlike the big 3 console makers. Not only is the cost of the dev unit high but the big 3 don't sell them to just anyone willing to fork over the cash. The high cost also helps insure that those they sell them to will keep track of them and not let them fall into what they feel is the wrong hands. Still these units are up for sale on the grey market all the time. And there are sites devoted to community support for these unofficial developers.

Back to the point, the idea of getting a developer to pay a small premium for an additional unit should be offset by the whole idea the reason he is doing it is to make an app which he will sell for profit.

This is really a pittance to pay. Game console developers have to pay $5K, $10K and even $20K for a devkit and still be locked out of production unit features. For example, a PS3 dev unit cannot play blu-ray movie discs. Google probably would like to insure that those who sign up for development are say, going to actually do development.

This story is rather comical in light of the earlier Slashdot article today on Google Chrome. 'The web is becoming an integral part of the computer and the basic distinction between the OS and the browser doesn't matter very much any more.' -- Lars Bak, head of Chrome's Javascript.

If development heads would only check with the lawyers before making statements to the press...

Now, now the French have had many glorious naval victories. Like the sinking of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior. This will just be recorded in French history books as one more. Now, who else wants to sign the Marsellaise?

This has nothing to do with Open Source. It sounds more like a publicity spin on an Open Beta or Public Beta, something not uncommon in the gaming world. It is particularly common on games that rely on an online community. Game manufacturers know that to release a game that relies on an online community and not have that game tried by a portion of that community prior to launch day can be suicide. Even highly anticipated games must have public trials even if they are limited by number of sign-ups. Feedback prior to launch is crucial.

Having public trials of software is nothing new. You can download beta versions of a slew of Microsoft products, Windows 7, Server 2008, Songsmith but one would hardly label them as having Open Source Design.